Hansel, Gretel, and the Chinchorro: A Live Performance Entertainment Education Approach to Chagas Disease in Rural Ecuador

ABSTRACT Impoverished rural communities are disproportionately affected by a neglected tropical disease called Chagas disease. Because it is a disease that affects the poor, governments inconsistently respond and, when they respond, governments use insecticides that are expensive for the affected communities and unhealthy for their inhabitants. Primary prevention of Chagas disease is essential. The present study reports on an entertainment education approach that sought to raise awareness of Chagas and its insect vector, the triatomine bug. As part of our ongoing efforts in rural Ecuador, we worked with the children of Chaquizhca to create plays that would promote awareness of triatomine bugs and associate the bugs with Chagas disease. Through an analysis of the plays the children wrote, we demonstrate opportunities and challenges that local scale entertainment education approaches face in when adopting community-centered participatory approaches in rural communities.